Pimp my Martin: King did not take a bullet for unions
on June 18th, 2011 at 9:11 am
One of those things that just really gets under my skin is when I see people attempting to use MLK and the civil rights era in general to add legitimacy to their movement. This is tactic that has been used by the same-sex marriage wing, PETA, NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association), cross dressers, and more.
Union involvement in the sanitation worker’s strike ultimate purpose was to boot union membership. While I believe there was some legitimate concern for the racial injustice towards these workers, the union made it clear in this video that they were all about the UNION.
MLK on the hand was not a union man. History shows us that he would work with whomever to help achieve RACIAL justice–PERIOD. He was not interested in tying racial justice to a system that required dues for representation.
—>“What we’re witnessing is nothing short of an ideological assault on Dr. King’s vision for a more just and equitable nation,” [Wade] Henderson said. “So, how will ordinary Americans respond to this effort to hijack the American Dream?”
Henderson and other self-described civil rights group leaders like NAACP president Benjamin Jealous and labor union leaders launched what they call an “organic, grassroots,” campaign, “We Are One,” this week. Henderson said their pressure campaign will consist of more than 1,000 “discrete community and workplace-focused actions,” including “more than 150 ‘teach-ins,’ hundreds of worksite mobilizations, community forums, vigils marches and more.”
It’s all part of an effort, though, to frame King’s assassination as a result of his involvement in the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike – an implication that he died fighting for collective bargaining, not against racial inequality.
King’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, told The Daily Caller her uncle really wasn’t in Memphis because it was a strike – he got involved in the strike because of racial discrimination. Black sanitation workers were treated unfairly compared to white ones, and, in fact, all 1,300 strikers were black. The unfair treatment led to the death of two black workers, too, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, who were crushed in a mechanical malfunction.
“My uncle was in Memphis, not specifically because of the union strikes but to help bring an end to oppression of the garbage workers which was racially driven,” Alveda King said in an e-mail.<—
